Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF)

The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) is a $250m challenge fund that awards grants and repayable grants to private sector companies. The AECF is an Africa-based challenge fund that aims to reduce poverty by supporting private sector businesses that have a positive impact on rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, the AECF supports businesses in agriculture, agribusiness, rural financial services and communications systems, renewable energy and adaptations to combat climate change. The AECF provides catalytic funding in the form of repayable and non-repayable grants to businesses that would not otherwise have access to adequate financing. SIDA-AECF- REACT Fund: $42m fund to be funded by the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA) to support renewable energy in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The project will run for five years and be implemented in Kenya, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique and Zimbabwe together with a regional component to support technical assistance, research and learning activities. This is expected to launch in November 2017.